And the U.S. is not alone in trying to maximize oil and gas production. Despite the financial failures of the U.S. fracking industry, international efforts to duplicate the American fracking story are ramping up across the globe.

The CEO of Saudi Arabian state oil company Aramco recently dismissed the idea that global demand for oil will decrease anytime soon and urged the oil industry to “push back on exaggerated theories like peak oil demand.”

Khalid al Falih, Saudi Arabia’s energy minister, told the Financial Times, “Going forward the world is going to be Saudi Aramco’s playground.” But not if other countries frack there first.

China Expanding Fracking Efforts, Testing New Technology

As a major importer of oil and natural gas, it is no surprise that China is trying to exploit its own shale formations, which are rich with oil and gas. China is estimated to have the largest shale gas reserves of any country. However, China’s shale formations present different challenges than those in the U.S., including gas deposits at significantly greater depths.

China’s national oil and gas companies are making gains in fracking and lowering costs to produce gas but are still only producing a small fraction of the gas of U.S. frackers.

In addition to technical challenges, China also faces local opposition in regions where fracking is occurring. One county in China’s Sichuan province recently suspended fracking efforts after an earthquake killed two people. The event resulted in massive public protests against fracking, which protesters blame for the earthquakes.

The Chinese government insists that the earthquakes are unrelated to fracking activity, and points out the Sichuan region is known for earthquakes, including a devastating 2008 quake that killed an estimated nearly 90,000 people.

To complicate matters, China has plans to test a brand-new fracking technology to access gas deposits at extreme depths, where the pressures required are too great for current hydraulic fracturing techniques. This approach, never before tried outside a lab, involves detonating a device deep underground to fracture the impermeable shale rock and release gas deposits.

The first tests are expected by March or April of this year. While this technology comes with clear safety and environmental risks, especially within the earthquake-prone Sichuan province, the industry is mostly focused on the upside for gas production.

Chen Jun, a professor at Southwest Petroleum University in Chengdu, noted, “A technological breakthrough could trigger another shale gas revolution.”

Considering the existing shale oil and gas revolution’s impacts on the climate, the last thing the world needs is another one, but many big industry players are working toward just that.

Major Oil Companies Get in the Fracking Game

Besides Saudi Aramco, several other oil majors are now moving into fracking in a big way, with the constant goal of boosting oil and gas production.

BP abandoned its early attempts to produce oil and gas in the U.S. via fracking when it was forced to sell U.S. assets to pay for legal bills resulting from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil disaster. However, in 2018 BP spent $10.5 billion to buy the shale assets of BHP Billiton.

The oil giant also has a $12 billion investment in Oman, where fracking techniques and expertise learned in Texas — along with a favorable deal with the government of Oman — appear to be helping BP succeed.

BP announced profits of $12.7 billion for 2018. While it and other oil companies have so far failed to consistently profit off fracking for oil and gas in the U.S. and elsewhere, these large investments by BP and companies like ExxonMobil show that the biggest oil companies in the world are now betting big on fracking.

Continuing to expand oil and gas production, which fracking plays a huge part in, for energy, petrochemical, and plastic production is incompatible with international goals to keep global warming well under 3.6°F (2°C) above pre-industrial levels.

Yet governments around the world, the same ones which ratified the Paris Agreement, are supporting oil and gas companies as they seek to greatly widen fracking’s global footprint.

“One long frustrated rant without a single external data item. For real data, see my posts above.”

I gave you multiple references above you just chose to ignore them. I am spot on with your fraudulent chevenism.

Davy on Wed, 6th Mar 2019 1:50 pm

Oops, sorry. I meant to say chauvinism.

Stoopid cellphone spell chekker.

Not JuanP on Wed, 6th Mar 2019 1:56 pm

What’s a ‘lemon party’ Davy?

How does anybody even hear of such things?

Juanpee Identity Theft on Wed, 6th Mar 2019 2:05 pm

“Davy is extremely prejudiced, arrogant and ignorant.”

We don’t want dirty wetbacks like JuanPee in my country anymore.

DEPORT DIRTY WETBACK JUANPEE!

Not Davy on Wed, 6th Mar 2019 2:19 pm

Davy on Wed, 6th Mar 2019 1:50 pm

Davy on Wed, 6th Mar 2019 2:23 pm

What’s a ‘lemon party’ Davy? How does anybody even hear of such things?

No clue, juanpee. You are the bisexual who talks about ebony cock all the time so ask your other personality, boney joe.

Davy on Wed, 6th Mar 2019 2:32 pm

Please pay attention to my zero-hedge cut and pastes. Someone other than nedernazifraud would be nice. I put a lot of cntrl-C and cntrl-V work into those, or whatever buttons on my cell-phone do those things.
Plus there is all my tiny-url work besides.

JuanP is a dumbass, so stop listening to all his dirty socks and click on my zerohedge links instead.

Not Davy on Wed, 6th Mar 2019 2:32 pm

Davy on Wed, 6th Mar 2019 2:23 pm

Not Davy on Wed, 6th Mar 2019 2:46 pm

Not Davy on Wed, 6th Mar 2019 2:32 pm

Not Davy on Wed, 6th Mar 2019 2:51 pm

Not Davy on Wed, 6th Mar 2019 2:46 pm

Davy on Wed, 6th Mar 2019 2:52 pm

Davy on Wed, 6th Mar 2019 1:50 pm

Davy on Wed, 6th Mar 2019 2:53 pm

Davy on Wed, 6th Mar 2019 2:23 pm

Not Davy on Wed, 6th Mar 2019 2:55 pm

Davy on Wed, 6th Mar 2019 1:44 pm

JuanP mess on Wed, 6th Mar 2019 3:12 pm

The above is a typical juanPee mess. No wonder people hate the freak.

Davy mess on Wed, 6th Mar 2019 3:27 pm

Davy mess on Wed, 6th Mar 2019 3:12 pm

NathanPhillipsAKAfmr-paultard on Wed, 6th Mar 2019 3:34 pm

juantard
i’m frustrated. i’ll throw in additional 25lb bag of bean to help u and buddies on train ride back to south america. u need to leave supertard’s america ok